Washington, January 21:

US trade representative Rob Portman expressed hope that talks among trade powers in Switzerland next week would help get World Trade Organisation (WTO) liberalisation drive back on track.

About 30 ministers from key trading nations are expected to join an informal WTO meeting on the sidelines of the Davos World Economic Forum in Switzerland on January 27 and 28, the Swiss government said. “It’s a mini-ministerial, not meant to resolve issues finally, but I do think it’s the right mix of individual ministers and countries to be able to make progress,” Portman said, “I’m hopeful we have set the stage to deal with the core issues of market access. I hope that at the mini-ministerial , this will be the focus.”

The Swiss economics ministry said the meeting was aimed at discussing the next steps in global trade talks following the WTO’s ministerial conference in Hong Kong last month, with the aim of clinching a deal by the end of this year.

The Hong Kong meeting concluded with agreement to remove farm export subsidies by 2013.